New MP Map:Siege (Anyone willing to help me playtest it MP?)

[i]

Hey all,

I don't know if the name Siege has been used for a MP map yet; I'd imagine that it has, but I figured I'd name it Siege for now and hopefully no one has.

The concept of this map is pretty straightforward.. 3 players, on a triangular shaped island (each starting at a tip of the triangle), with a keep in the middle which is quite powerful if held by one of the leaders.

I'd recommend starting at about 300 gold for each side, just to keep things intense. I think a large part of the strategy for this map will be leader positioning, for advantage.

I've kept the cottages away from the central keep, to make holding it something of a challenge, but the keep is fortified with hills/forest around it, as well as a bit of a moat to slow advances directly from the original starting points.

There are strengths to holding the cottages at the central point of each side of the triangle.. one of them is easy central keep access with additional terrain to make the positions desirable.

The map is called siege, hence it is all about digging in and positioning, and assaults on positions.

This is my first attempt at map making, but I'd like honest opinions on the map. I do think that starting at 300 gold for each faction is critical for the map to play well.

Give it a go, see how you like it, if you like it, tell a friend.. this is my first try at mapmaking, but I think it's a worthy one.

Peace.

Edit: I should say too, this map is completely balanced, the terrain is a mirror image for each of the 3 sides.

[/i]

[i]

I'm not seeing the file.. did I add it correctly?

(I figured it out.. had to be compressed)

[Sapient]

I should say too, this map is completely balanced, the terrain is a mirror image for each of the 3 sides.

Just because the terrain is a mirror image does not mean the map is completely balanced! What about factional considerations of the terrain? What about factions with expensive recruits that can take more advantage of the high starting gold? Also there a lot of players (such as myself) who believe that symmetrical 3-team maps are inherently unbalanced.

Putting all of these factors together, if I had to guess I'd say Northerners are the most disadvantaged faction on the map.

[i]

I should say too, this map is completely balanced, the terrain is a mirror image for each of the 3 sides.

Just because the terrain is a mirror image does not mean the map is completely balanced! What about factional considerations of the terrain? What about factions with expensive recruits that can take more advantage of the high starting gold? Also there a lot of players (such as myself) who believe that symmetrical 3-team maps are inherently unbalanced.

I meant that it's balanced in terms of the layout of the terrain. I'm not here to make claims that can't be substantiated or to try to make this map something that it's not.

I think it's a good map, give it a go, see how you like it. This is my first attempt, I don't expect that it will be perfect. But I think you'd like it if you tried it.

[i]

Also I believe that it is worthwhile to take into consideration the central keep.

While it's true that 2 people could team up on one other person (which I'd guess is probably why some people feel that 1 vs 1 vs 1 games are unbalanced), I think that the central keep will play a balancing role in this map. It's quite powerful, the map was crafted for this to be the case.

If the players are really playing 1 vs 1 vs 1, and not covertly playing 2 vs 1, I believe that the real battle will be over who controls that keep, and then it's everyone for themself.

Part of what makes this happen is the numerous cottages; lots of gold to be put into pumping out units once it's held. I think this map has more merit than it may first appear to have.

[i]

Putting all of these factors together, if I had to guess I'd say Northerners are the most disadvantaged faction on the map.

You are probably right, I don't really know. I've mostly played campaigns and just a bit of MP, so I don't know much about the factions in terms of MP.

We all start somewhere though, right? I've got an extremely solid understanding of game mechanics from 24 years of gaming (mostly TBS's), so I think this understanding has been imbued into the map to some degree.

Give it a try, you might like it

Peace

[i]

Would anyone be willing to help me playtest this map? I feel like it's a good one, but the only way to know is to put it to the test.

I could very easily be suffering from beginner's overconfidence.

We wouldn't have to play it immediately, but if anyone wants to get a 3 player MP match going with this one, or even a 2 player/1 AI, I'd certainly appreciate it. If someone with knowledge about map making would be up for it, that'd be even better.

We could play it on the official servers, no hassles just D/L and meet up on the server. Let me know if anyone out there is interested.

[Noyga]

Not that bad for a first map.
Btw you might take in consideration the first player advantage :
in short, being the first player to play, be can grab first villages toward the center, thus denying the other player from taking them.
Here three the villages near the middle of the side of the triangle would be affected by this.

[Sapient]

Sorry if I sounded rude; I guess I should say welcome to Wesnoth, letter 'i' and thanks for sharing your map. If you want to set up some matches the easiest way is on the MP server, as leader of the N3T clan you probably aren't going to convince me to play a 3-team map, though.

Here three the villages near the middle of the side of the triangle would be affected by this.

Not really... the first player would have to be suicidal to grab those during the initial turns.

[i]

It's all good Sapient, I don't know the intricacies of MP map making yet, I just had this idea for this map and figured it would be worth creating. It's good to get the veteran take on it,

I probably won't endeavor to make a 3-player map again, but I've got an early idea for a 6-player map right now. I'm still ironing out the ideas, but I think it could be good. I need to see what's already created, and make sure that the idea isn't already in place in wesnoth.

Is it possible to have an option on a map for either 2 teams of 3, or alternatively, 3 teams of 2? Also, does the 3-player map problem occur for 3 teams of 2 players as well?

Thank you for the welcome Sapient, hopefully I can add something of worth to what is already established in the realm of wesnoth. Wesnoth is quite literally the exact game that I've been looking for, for the last 2-3 years.

It's interesting that I've found the good stuff once I switched to Linux (Ubuntu). Such is the beauty of open source. Windows XP to me now is like a discarded home appliance that never worked quite right and took 3x longer to work than it should have. Long live Linux!

Peace

[Clonkinator]

Windows XP to me now is like a discarded home appliance that never worked quite right and took 3x longer to work than it should have.

[off_topic]
Bah, Windows Me is a thousand times better than Windows XP
[/off_topic]
[on_topic]
Yeah, I didn't test this map out yet, but it looks relatively nice. I'd consider adding a few mountains perhaps, though. Other than that, welcome to Wesnoth, and for this map being your first one it looks pretty good.
Keep creating such good stuff
[/on_topic]

[F8 Binds...]

It could use some less forest and more hills/ mountains.

[Wisniewski]

Ive never been a fan of these image mirror maps due to the fact that this isnt chess. The totally flat edges also seem to ruin the fantasy/ wesnothy experience. It seems to robotic. Its a great idea, Just perhaps not the greatest presentation.